@phlogiston@mastodon.nz
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

phlogiston

@phlogiston@mastodon.nz

Geek, computer scientist, engineer, blockchain/crypto enthusiast, freediver, baseball nut, father, husband, odd ball, traveller, ...

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phlogiston, to privacy
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

This is quite interesting/insightful. A 'map of the land' (universe?) of search engines, crawlers, meta-search engines, how they're related to each other, including info on their jurisdiction, ownership, features, etc.

https://www.searchenginemap.com/

Done by @Mojeek

phlogiston, to TeslaMotors
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

Energy efficiency of battery EV vs. Hydrogen vs. traditional ICE.

phlogiston, to Hydrogen
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

"Government’s hydrogen strategy may sabotage decarbonisation: expert"

A bit old (originally from 2022), but still very valid. #Hopium is the method of choice for the fossils to continue to do what they have been doing all along, and it gets in the way of cleaning up our act for a more sustainable future.

https://www.carbonnews.co.nz/story.asp?storyID=25713

#hydrogen

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@Hypx
Well, already through the laws of science (2nd law of thermodynamics), an ICE has a ideal capping of efficiency as can be established by the Carnot cycle. A Diesel engine (as a very efficient member of the ICE family) for example can only convert about 40% of its chemical energy to be usable.

This is not yet even factoring in other problems and shortcomings of bringing #Hopium into a (traditional) combustion process or the logistics chain on top of environmental impacts.

#hydrogen

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

"The government is being warned that tight electricity supply situations could become more frequent, especially on cold winter mornings and evenings.

...

The briefing said the government's dumping the aspirational goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 - and the Lake Onslow 'battery' project along with it - gave the ministry more room to work on the problem."

, 2024

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/508347/tight-electricity-supply-situations-may-become-more-frequent-government-briefing-warns

Avoiding the short term power shortage at the cost of long term fixes 🤦‍♂️

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@strypey
Please, not hydrogen (). It's actually much worse to the environment (green house gasses) than methane.

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@strypey
H₂ is a climate heating gas. And, due to its tiny molecule (extremely low molecular weight of 2), it 'slips through' and is hard to contain. Also in logistics of it, a lot of 'boil off' and leakages do happen. That's why it's nothing that should be pushed to an end-user, but only used (if economically and ecologically sensible) to controlled industry.

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@strypey
Some references:

It is mainly fueled by lobbyism in similar ways as carbon sequestration engineering.

phlogiston, to python
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

If anyone needs additional muscle from a hard core geek, I'm available (immediately) also for short term gigs. I have a strong preference for and an affinity to the or community. Paricularly capable in back end stuff, (RESTful) APIs, security/cryptography, architecture, data analytics, TDD, ... and more.

murena, to privacy French
@murena@mastodon.social avatar

Murena 2, powered by /e/OS is redefining mobile experience.

This pro-privacy open source deGoogled operating system ensures your data stays yours. @e_mydata

Join us in defending your .

Back our campaign and pre-order your deGoogled Murena 2
https://igg.me/at/murena2

Your Privacy On!

@gael

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@murena @e_mydata @gael
When will Murena devices be available elsewhere in the world (e.g. in Aotearoa/New Zealand or other places off the beaten tracks of EU and US)?

We want through deGoogled devices, too!

phlogiston, to privacy
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

If you'd like to get a rough feeling on how well your ad-blocking strategies are (uBlock Origin, Pi hole, AdGuard, AdNauseam, ...), give this test tool a try:

https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html

My block rate is 98%

(still need to figure out how to squeeze out more, and finally get the Pi hole set up here locally as well)

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

Funny thing:

I've enabled some more filter lists from uBlock Origin, and my score went down! Really strange ...

phlogiston, to random
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

Funny, I had also posted this content on LinkedIn:

https://mastodon.nz/@phlogiston/111287258931901796

It's created a whole sh*t storm of comments and discussions, and the LI analytics show that it's had a 'reach' of 15,000+ 'impressions'. Now the Head of Corporate Affairs at Kiwibank has checked out my LI profile.

Nice to see that this has in fact created some interest through making some waves.

lightweight, to random
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Oh my goodness. Complained to my bank about the fact that they're still requesting signed documents (using analogue signatures!?!) be sent as email attachments, unencrypted, to bank staff. WTaF. I spoke to their security team prob 4 years ago about a secure upload facility. They said one was under development and would be available shortly... haven't seen a sign of it yet. I again submitted feedback outlining my concerns & I got a response from a low-level tech saying she'd 'escalated... 1/2

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@lightweight Also, the O365 encryption is pretty shit. I've once looked into it, and they even fell for the basic crypto newbie boo boos in their implementation. Plus, it's not end-to-end, but server-side encryption only.

MS Cryptography FAIL

timClicks, to random
@timClicks@mastodon.nz avatar

(International) payments are the strangest phenomenon. Everything's electronic, yet everything seems to take a week.

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@timClicks
They're making heaps of money off of that! On the one hand the fees are quite high, on the other hand for the time until settlement, they're having your money as an interest free loan. Considering the number of (international) transactions, that's A LOT of money contributing to their liquidity/cash flow.

phlogiston, to privacy
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

I'm always wondering why it is permissible that NZ banks (Kiwibank here) are using Google Tag Manager for user tracking and behavioural insights.

Google shouldn't even know I'm using my bank's internal online banking.

strypey, to random
@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

Next time some well-meaning but history-blind Pākeha asks why Māori are still banging on about colonisation that happened a century ago, sit them down with No Māori Allowed.

"The documentary... reveals that from 1920 until the early 1960s, Māori [in Pukekohe] were barred from public toilets, segregated at the cinema and swimming baths, refused alcohol, haircuts and taxi rides, forced to stand for white bus passengers and barred from schools."

https://i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/130075649/tvnz-documentary-no-mori-allowed-revisits-pukekohes-history-of-segregation

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@strypey
If you have an alternative frontend (e.g. Kodi with the TVNZ+ addon) you don't need to log in or be tracked. But it still requires the Widevine codec to access DRM content.

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@strypey
I recommend installing LibreELEC, and then the TVNZ+ addon. It should pull the dependencies with Widevine by itself, I believe. Sources are on GitHub repos, I believe (not Widevine, though, which is somehow extracted from Chrome or so.

remixtures, to ai Portuguese
@remixtures@tldr.nettime.org avatar

: "Many Americans have little trust in companies to use AI responsibly. Among those who have heard of artificial intelligence (AI):

  • 70% say they have little to no trust in companies to make responsible decisions about how they use AI in their products.
  • 81% say the information companies collect will be used in ways that people are not comfortable with
  • 80% say it will be used in ways that were not originally intended.
  • Still, 62% of those who have heard of AI say companies using it to analyze personal details could make life easier."

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/18/key-findings-about-americans-and-data-privacy/

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@remixtures Non-Americans have even less trust in US companies dealing with AI responsibly.

murena, to privacy French
@murena@mastodon.social avatar

The Perfect Match.

From October 16 to October 29, get a free Flipcase when buying Murena Fairphone 4.

See more details at 👉 https://murena.com/discover-the-latest-news-at-murena-com/

@Fairphone @gael @e_mydata @aachen

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@murena @Fairphone
When will Murena/Fairphones be made available worldwide? When will we be able to get them in New Zealand?

rm4, to privacy

Hello Fedi friends, if you don't want to see ads, like privacy and like FOSS, but still want to watch and subscribe on YouTube, check out:

NewPipe (Android): https://newpipe.net/

@libretube (Android): https://libretube.dev/

@FreeTube (Linux, Windows, Mac): https://freetubeapp.io

Invidious (Web browsers): https://redirect.invidious.io/

@libredirect - Redirect to Invidious on web (addon for Firefox and Chromium browsers): https://libredirect.github.io/

Happy watching!

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@rm4 @libretube @FreeTube
Oooh, I just love the @libredirect browser addon:

libredirect.github.io

Just installed it in my browser and it's magic!

I had been using NewPipe on my mobile already, but for the desktop browser this is awesome.

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@rm4 @libredirect
Absolutely. Also the ping feature for the configured instances is nice to make an educated selection that works.

gvwilson, to random
@gvwilson@mastodon.social avatar

It appears that Dropbox is sharing all content outside the EU with OpenAI https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-ai - please contact them to ask how you can opt out (because I can't find an option to do so in Canada).

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@gvwilson
It's a typical problem. I've mentioned so many times to colleagues in companies that we can't use Big Tech tool XYZ, because using it would make us not GDPR compliant (for our customers there). Then they point at some elaborate document from XYZ stating that they are GDPR compliant.

However, those options are usually not available for anybody outside the EU zone.

So, f*ck off Big Tech! Give us all the same chances to preserve our privacy!

xahteiwi, to random
@xahteiwi@mastodon.social avatar

A little while back I explained the method used to calculate NPS to a mathematician. It completely baffled her to learn that simple arithmetic could be abused so badly.

(Alternate title: Numerology Posing as Science.)

https://xahteiwi.eu/blog/2022/10/15/nps/

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@xahteiwi It's in a similar way harmful to burn into the NPS cult as it is to follow the DiSC cult of personality measurement.

But both are very prevalent in corporate culture.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Speaking of office supplies... I have been longing for this tape dispenser for three years.

It's perfect. I saw it in a ink blogger's photo shoot, tracked the brand down. It's sold at this German department store that seems like? Muji/Ikea but German?

Just suck it up and pay the shipping, you say? Not possible. No one sells or ships this to the US. I keep waiting for one of the fancy shops to pick it up... they never do.

So if you know someone tell them. Stock this.

https://www.manufactum.com/adhesive-tape-dispenser-oak-maple-a15822/

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@futurebird
That's an interesting twist. An American complaining about not being able to get stuff online. We in Aotearoa New Zealand are getting EVERYTHING advertised on Amazon, but usually stuff isn't available to us (which one only finds out when clicking on the BUY button).

And if it is, it's ludicrously expensive due to shipping rates.

BTW, I want a Murena/Fairphone available here ...

fsf, to random
@fsf@hostux.social avatar

Google's deprecation of demonstrates its unjust amount of control over the web. Read our writeup here: https://u.fsf.org/3z8

phlogiston,
@phlogiston@mastodon.nz avatar

@fsf That smells like an opportunity to overcome the Google Chrome dominance with Google's own weapons (alike the Flying Spaghetti Monster/Pastafarian movement):

Make sure all free browsers include JPEG XL format support, and make sure the image format is used a lot.

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